Rose Main Reading Room, the fourth full length by Peel Dream Magazine, is a lush, inviting headphones record; the kind of album made to accompany city bus rides and rainy-day solo trips to accidental destinations. The band, whose name nods to the BBC Radio 1 legend John Peel -- arbiter of all things underground, quality, and (it must be said) "cool" -- has since its inception been a genre-hopping experiment, jumping from motorik krautrock to shoegaze and space ago pop, and their newest work is a perfect starting point for the uninitiated, beckoning toward a newfound romance and nostalgia with their catchiest collection of songs to date.

Set to the backdrop of New York City and its towering landmarks -- The American Museum of Natural History, Grand Central Station, and the like -- songwriter Joseph Stevens weaves personal stories into the wider fabric of the natural world, touching on themes of instinct, animality, and evolution. On the memory stirrer "Central Park West", Stevens and his principal contributors, vocalist Olivia Babuka Black and multi-instrumentalist Ian Gibbs, evoke a woodland sound palette juxtaposed against drones and various electronics. It's paired with the welcome greeting of "Dawn", a song that revels in arpeggiating woodwinds and mallets, recalling the wide-eyed contemporary classical of Steve Reich and Sufjan Stevens.

Listen to "Central Park West" and "Dawn"→
Recommended if you like: Stereolab, Air, Belle & Sebastian, Julia Holter, Jessica Pratt, The American Analog Set, blue sky Nat-Geo pop

Peel Dream Magazine's Joe Stevens writes about both:

"Central Park West" is a first-person account of me wandering through Manhattan on a solo jaunt. A lot of the song references the Museum of Natural History, which has always fascinated me with its weird dioramas and quiet low lighting. I also walk through Central Park, the Upper West Side, and the Rose Main Reading Room at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street (which the album is named after). The song evokes a kind of woodland sound palette with flutes, banjo, and acoustic guitar, and it feels like a fun juxtaposition with the cosmopolitan stuff. "Central Park West" is backed with another song from the new album, "Dawn", which is kind of Phillip-Glass-inspired and builds in a really pretty way. "Dawn" is this really simple tune about the beginning of a day and all of the opportunity it brings.

Watch the "Central Park West" and "Dawn" music videos →

Upcoming Peel Dream Magazine US Tour dates:

• August 08, 2024 - Toronto, ON, Canada @ Lee's Palace - get tickets
• August 12, 2024 - New York (NYC), NY, US @ Elsewhere - The Hall - get tickets
• August 13, 2024 - Philadelphia, PA, US @ Underground Arts - get tickets
• August 14, 2024 - Washington, DC, US @ Union Stage - get tickets
• August 16, 2024 - Atlanta, GA, US @ The Masquerade - Altar - get tickets
• August 18, 2024 - Austin, TX, US @ Mohawk - Indoor - get tickets
• September 07, 2024 - Los Angeles (LA), CA, US @ Zebulon - get tickets

"Following dalliances with shoegaze and kosmiche, Joe Stevens has pivoted to woodwinds and glockenspiel. Steeped in the baroque-pop inclinations of Sufjan Stevens' state albums, the other Stevens' new work as Peel Dream Magazine marks another exciting turn from an artist always in motion. Rose Main Reading Room turns Stevens' music into a delerious maze with surprises at every corner"
-Uproxx

Rose Main Reading Room is out everywhere on September 4th, 2024 (digital, vinyl, CD, and cassette). Pre-orders for the album on all formats are available now.